Dan Iacketta points out a photograph of the Troy neighborhood he grew up in to Theresa Gervaso during the Prospect Park Memorial Reunion Picnic, held at Prospect Park on Sunday. (Jeff Couch / The Record)

TROY -- The old neighborhood just isn't the same -- but the memories live on. And the Prospect Park Memorial Reunion Picnic was held Sunday to make sure they do.

"The neighborhood doesn't exist anymore. People can get together at the park and hopefully bring younger people to these events and re-live it with their families as they get older," said one of the event's organizers, Herb Hyde, who grew up on Eighth Street. "We don't want the neighborhood to be lost."

Many of the 120 or so attendees of the second memorial picnic had similar sentiments and all fondly recalled growing up in the neighborhood known as Ida Hill.

"We all lived around here and we're here to share pictures and memories," said Karen Flynn Caola, who grew up on Congress and 15th streets and proclaimed herself a proud "Ida Hiller."

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Many old photos were passed around and Caola said some picnic goers were able to identify some people she didn't know in her father's photos.

Prospect Park is a jewel of Ida Hill, and many said they spent countless hours there as children playing sports and just being kids. Many talked of the pool, which has been closed for years over budgetary concerns.

"The pool was the greatest thing in the world back then," said Brenda Robinson, who grew up on Eighth Street. "We learned how to swim here. It was a great place. There's a lot of fun and a lot of good memories. I would like to see the city do something with the pool."

Many talked of a simpler time when there was no Internet or cell phones.

"You leave home in the morning and go to the park, come home at noontime for lunch and then go back out again until dinnertime then come back to the park for baseball," said Jack Weaver, who grew up on 13th Street that's now "90 percent occupied by RPI students."

"The kids don't do that anymore," added the oldest of 10 children.

He and friend Carl Cioffe went to St. Francis together.

"Everything was here when we were growing up" Cioffe said Even the church and that was bought by RPI and turned into a fraternity."

RPI also purchased a number of buildings on Eighth and College streets to make way for the EMPAC center.

"The entire neighborhood is decimated at this point in time," Hyde said. "They are re-developing, which is a good thing, but in doing so, you lose the context of what family life was like in the 40s, 50s and 60s. It was a different era and that's what we're trying to preserve here."

"It's not a neighborhood anymore," echoed Bill French, who grew up on College Avenue and called the park his second home when he was a kid. "When I was growing up, you knew who lived in every house. Now, it's not a neighborhood."

While some have moved on, others have stayed in the area their entire lives. The neighborhood reunion brought them together again.

"It's nice seeing the people I haven't seen in a while. It really is nice because some of these people I haven't seen in 30 or 40 years," said Sandy Krogh, who lived on Ida Hill for 68 years. "They used to have more activities up here for kids like checkers tournaments and basketball tournaments during the summer, and they really don't have anything anymore for kids."

"I wanted to see everyone. There are so many who I've not seen in years," said Pat Dolan Finnen. "We used to come here and swim and my father used took me to baseball games here."

The group met to see old friends and share some food and drink as they looked at old photos and talked about good times and bad.

"It was a beautiful place at one time and I know the city is trying to get back on its feet again and a lot of the people in town now don't realize the history of the place," said Tony Nowakowski, whose father was a Troy police officer. "It would be nice if it came back to its former glory of sorts. When I lived here, the pool was open and we spent a lot of time here. There was all sorts of events and gatherings and we're trying to bring a little of it back."